


Dark Nights, Vega City

by Golbez



Series: Home and Heart [1]
Category: Battle B-Daman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Alternate Universe - Magic, Arson, Community: getyourwordsout, Depression, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fire Powers, Friendship, Gen, Suicidal Thoughts, Vigilantism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-10
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:14:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23497369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Golbez/pseuds/Golbez
Summary: The Fireblade comes to Vega City to retrieve the Thunderking. A dark Magic Powers/No B-daman AU.
Series: Home and Heart [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1754230
Kudos: 2





	1. a sour scent

**Author's Note:**

> This is for [a set of prompts](https://leusignac.dreamwidth.org/10411.html).
> 
> This fic is part of an old AU I haven't introduced on here yet. The important thing to know is that there are no B-daman and everyone has magic powers instead, and this is set in the timeframe equivalent to Fire Spirits. It was inspired by the game's version of events in Vega City, where Yamato is the one who meets Enjyu in Vega City rather than Gray.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: sour.

Lightning arcs between the combatants.

The first of them—an octopus of a man—immediately breaks his hold on his opponent, limbs retreating as he attempts to escape the lightning that has begun to dance around him. His opponent—a young man with hair like flame clad entirely in leather—laughs and throws his arms open wide. Electricity chokes the air around him, a shell of power that crackles and pulses and simply oozes a promise of pain.

"There it is!" screams the announcer, as the octopus races for the haphazardly built cage around their arena. "Thunderking's serious now!"

Yamato turns away from the spectacle going on below as the audience descends into chaotic cheering. He starts for the exit, recalling the entryway to the back of the arena that he'd spotted on his way in.

He has seen enough.

***

Something lingers in the air backstage, away from the crowds and the glamour of battling. Enjyu doesn't turn his nose up at it anymore. He knows he too carries that sickening, fermented scent of terror and unease that washes over the arena's hallways.

The Boss of Vega City's underground arena is some squat and unidentifiable animal, features long warped into a shapeless form by the privation running rampant in the city. Enjyu finds him in his office at his blackened desk, on his throne of ill-gotten ivory, in his gaudy silver suit.

"Good work tonight." The Boss flashes him a pointed smile and reaches for the glass of suspect liquid on his desk. "Foreman's got your pay, as usual."

Enjyu does not look or turn away when the Boss drinks. There is little room for disgust right now. He stands in silence and lets the Boss take his time. Cash is all that keeps him before the Boss, dignity as a battler long shed in the face of many a hungry night.

He simply stares at the Boss expectantly. There is something else. There is always something else.

"Oh right, before I forget," says the Boss as though Enjyu were already on his way out. "You've got a date tomorrow. Foreman's got the details—you know the drill."

And again, silence. Boss's rules are simple, after all. No one speaks unless he allows it, and Enjyu had mouthed off enough early on to know better now.

"All right, scram," adds the Boss.

"Sir," is all Enjyu says, and he turns on his heel and marches out the door without another word.

The Foreman occupies his thoughts. Another shapeless man, another foul enforcer of the city's underworld in the Boss's name. Where the Boss sits and makes orders from his blackened desk, the Foreman moves efficiently through the streets with a silver gun and a list of names.

And he has the money promised to him, together with his next job. Enjyu manages a frown as he stomps through the halls of the arena's backstage.

"Hey Enjyu, long time no see."

The voice stops him in his tracks. When he looks up the stairs, it is who he dreads most. Yamato stands there, radiant as ever, clearly untouched by the darkness that rises from the pit of Vega City.

Enjyu's breath catches, and he is suddenly aware of the sharp and rancid scent of his own state of affairs. He has turned this exact scenario in his mind before. He needs only walk away, pretend he didn't see Yamato at all. He needs to find the Foreman and get his pay and find out about his client tomorrow and just go.

"...Yamato..." falls from his lips before he can stop himself.


	2. a joyless finality

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "League of Power" is an obvious analogue to "Team Powered" from the manga.
> 
> Prompt: pessimistic.

"What the heck was that fight out there?"

"Enjyu, why are you in this nasty city?"

"Hey, stop ignoring me!"

Yamato strides after Enjyu, demanding his attention as they traverse the inner depths of the building. Enjyu walks with a purpose and determination that Yamato cannot quite distinguish. Yet, though Enjyu's feet are clear in their destination, his gaze is evidently downcast, a far cry from the Enjyu of a year ago.

When they come to a stop before an unassuming door, Enjyu finally acknowledges him again.

"Get lost," he growls.

"No, I don't think I will," answers Yamato immediately.

Enjyu sighs. "Then stay out of sight," he says, and when Yamato starts to protest, he adds, "No, believe me, they'll kill you if they see you."

"Story of my life," snaps Yamato. He furrows his brow. Irritation bubbles within him, roiling towards indignation as he takes in the details of Enjyu's appearance and combines that information with what he's observing of this place. Vega City is no place for a warrior of Enjyu's caliber. "What's your game here, Enjyu?"

"Nothing but survival." Enjyu's voice is low, some indiscernible emotion straining within it to be heard. "I sell everything I have, everything I am, piece by piece every day just to survive. 'Course, you wouldn't know a thing about any of that."

"Enjyu..." Yamato draws in a breath, trying to keep his emotions quashed. "What happened to you?"

There's a long and pregnant pause, where Enjyu drops his gaze away again. His face, Yamato notes, barely shows his emotions anymore, where the Enjyu in his memory was always so lively, so eager to express what he thought of things.

"Nothing. Nothing happened to me," he says. "This is just the kind of place where I belong."

He doesn't offer another warning after that, heading through the door before them. Yamato hears it shut but doesn't hear the lock click and he wonders for a moment if he should follow.

He suspects whatever he'll find...there may not be much left of the building or the city after he's worked through the anger.

Enjyu steps back out moments later, a pouch in his hand.

He stares at Yamato, clearly hovering on something he wishes desperately to say. But the silence stretches and stretches, on and on, and Enjyu says nothing in the end. Yamato stares back, taking in Enjyu's ragged features. He looks into those sapphire eyes and searches and searches, but gone is the life and passion that once marked them.

"You don't have to stay here," he tells Enjyu. "C'mon Enjyu, there's a place for you in Cowtoon."

Enjyu gazes back at him with a quietly pained expression. "And on your team?"

"Yes," answers Yamato immediately. "My offer from last year still stands. You're welcome to join the League of Power whenever you want."

Enjyu looks away, and Yamato already knows what he's about to say.

"I can't." Enjyu starts back down the way they came. "...I have to go. Stop wasting your time on me, Yamato. Go home."

Words come and go through Yamato's mind, as he opens his mouth to protest again, but this time—there is something about the joyless finality in Enjyu's words that gives him pause. He senses more arguing is pointless, so Yamato shuts his mouth and simply watches Enjyu's back recede into the darkness of the corridor ahead.

He can feel his anger and disappointment straining against the surface of his emotions, against a chilling calm that clears his senses and brings his mind to clarity.

It is time for other methods.


	3. the modest warrior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please take note of the warning for suicidal thoughts in this chapter. Stay safe.
> 
> Prompt: arrogant

Rare are the moments where Enjyu can lean back in his bathtub and let himself relax. Water is his only solace on evenings like this, when he's been sold by the Boss to the highest bidder, when he has a day of fakery and swallowing his pride to look forward to while a stranger hangs off his arm. He breathes in deeply, the wretched odor of the city filling his lungs through the tiny window he's left open in his little apartment.

Yamato is somewhere out there in the city. Enjyu knows he can take care of himself, but wonders if he shouldn't have left him alone, should have at least brought him back here to this dingy, barely serviceable place. It's too late now, he tells himself. He grumbles and sinks further into his tub and causes water to splash out onto grimy tiles below. Yamato should never have come here. Yamato should never have come to this city that is too far beneath him and his world. Yamato should never have come for him, not when he's surely sunken too deep to be pulled back out.

He wonders if he should let the water claim every inch of him, both inside and out. Then there would be nothing. There would be no more of this. No more of anything.

Enjyu shuts his eyes and lets himself submerge, teetering against the instinct of refusing to breathe in when surrounded by water.

Something silly flashes through his mind—

_If I die tonight, who will cry?_

...

"Enjyu."

His father's back is a broad expanse of unbearable familiarity. It is the sight he knows best from his distant childhood, accompanied by the shuffling noises of paper or the clinking of metal as his father tinkers away and works on something unknowable to him.

"What do you think you're doing back here?" His father's voice is indistinct, an ambiguous noise even if he recognizes the words. "You haven't been out long. Why're you back already? Get the hell out of here and don't come back till you've got something for me."

"Dad, please—" Enjyu tries to say, tries to protest, tries to tell him he just wants to stay here and doesn't want to go back out there. He doesn't want to go down to the fields and peddle the lightning and warmth that dances in his heart anymore to anyone who'll pay him for it. He wants to hold them close to himself instead. They are his. They are his. The lightning and fire are his.

"See you later, pal."

Cornell's fingers brush against his own as they step apart, and something arcs between them. He's always pulling on Enjyu, always pushing on him, like a wave roaring into a smoldering fire. Rain pours down around them, but Cornell keeps it from touching them with a grin and a wink.

"Wish I could walk you back to your place." Cornell's voice isn't easy to make out even within the bubble of rainless air he makes, and the crashing of rain around them makes it even harder. "But this is my stop. Stay dry, you hear?"

"I don't want—" Enjyu tries to stop him, tries to keep him from just going and leaving him here in the rain, where he'll have to start picking his way down to the slums and home to his father's back. He doesn't want to go. He wants to stick by Cornell, to hang onto the friendship Cornell offers him, even if he knows in the end it is meaningless. Even if, in the end, what he offers is not enough. Even if, in the end, loneliness is all he has.

"I trained you better than this."

Ababa's eyes are on him, their bright yellow a beacon in the darkness of the training room. The cat's gaze is always so pointed, always piercing deep into Enjyu's heart like afinely shaped blade. When it withdraws, it always drags with it everything he feels and fears.

"Get up, boy." Ababa's voice is so far away, somewhere above him. It is rare that Enjyu slips up during practice, but Ababa never takes his few mistakes kindly. "I plucked you from the pit you grew in and gave you a life—and this is how you repay me? Falling over just because the fire was too much for you? Get up, Enjyu."

"I can't keep going—" Enjyu tries to reason with him, tries to plead. He wants to ask how much more he must push himself, how much more he must fight against his body's limitations. He can't wield both his fire and lightning at once.

It's too much...

Enjyu gasps for air as he sits up, water sloshing about around him in his rush.

Numbness settles in, but he takes a moment to breathe.

It's a long while before he finds the strength to pull himself out of the bath and stumble off onto his unbearable lump of a bed. The lone lamp dangling above him is broken and all he has to occupy himself is the bustle of the city slipping in through the open window. Lights drift by accompanied by the rumbling of cars moving through the streets outside.

Six months. Enjyu has been here six months and he supposes he'll live for one more night.

But he's not sure he'll make it the next time he sinks.


	4. a towering skyline

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this chapter is...um...arson and vigilantism?
> 
> (Image) Prompt: [Upside Down City](http://x.getyourwordsout.net/prompts/pp052.jpg)

Spotlights dance in the sky above, beckoning to the masses walking down below. Vega City's skyscrapers reach for the sky, looming over the souls trapped within its perimeter, but they too are ensnared within the massive pit that composes Vega City's foundation. The structures clamour for the clouds and every day some company somewhere is building something new in the city, but nothing they build can achieve the heights they dream of.

It's easy to fall into Vega City, but much harder to climb back out.

This is what Yamato learned overnight, burning through his reserves of power to stay awake and gather information. Something about Vega City draws in both the desperate and the foolhardy, and among them are many warriors like himself and Enjyu, child wielders of elements drawn from within. Something about the city pulls them in, and then the city turns on them, its towers falling upside down and becoming an oppressive weight threatening to crush the individual.

Yamato cares only about Enjyu, but listening to the stories of others forced to fight in the underground arena has brought his rage to a steady simmer.

He has enough power stored to last him another few hours, the constant trickle of warmth keeping his eyes open and his mind alert and his body going. He looks up from where he stands in the middle of the street, which has become quiet as the hours progress. Far, far above, past the dark buildings of the lowest points of the city, past the pipes and bridges that keep the middle layers interconnected, past the uppermost echelons of the city with their shimmering lights and spotlights, the sky is turning a quiet shade of gray and pink.

Twilight rolls out over Vega City. It is quiet, almost eerie.

Yamato marches into the building where he first found Enjyu.

***

The arena is left in darkness when unused, but shadows have never bothered Yamato. Felinity runs in his veins as much as flames do, and he easily makes out the shape of the cage. How many children have passed through this arena, left with no choice but to take and take more out of themselves just to keep existing?

Yamato's anger flares, and this time he does not quash it. Fire starts near him as he gazes down at the arena from its entrance. It begins to coil around him, reaching out for the seats and lashing at everything in sight. Somewhere an alarm sounds, likely detecting the unnatural flames, and he hears shouts ringing out in other rooms. He sighs. It isn't always easy, doing what's right.

Normally, his flames are explosive. Today, it has a purpose.

***

Yamato slams open the door he had not dared to follow Enjyu through.

There is no one within, but his intel tells him the room belongs to the Foreman, enforcer of the nameless Boss of the underground. Yamato does not bother searching the room. There are few authorities who would care, and even less who would dare question justice meted out by the League of Power.

The room is underground, but there is a window open. Yamato takes a moment to investigate it, and quickly discovers it leads even deeper into Vega City, into the ancient mines that criss-cross beneath its bed. He considers following the Foreman but decides it isn't worth it.

He takes a moment to shut the window. He stops at the door on his way out. Flames loosen from the blazing shell around him, and he lets them go. Yamato does not stay to watch.

***

The Boss is waiting for him, sitting at his desk with hands clasped together and a calm expression on his featureless face.

"All right," he says, "What do you want? A spot in the arena? Money? Either way, burning down my business isn't the way to get it."

Yamato feels the fire swirling around him pull back and smolder in the presence of this man, as though it refuses to keep burning. He scowls and tugs on it as though it were a cloak, pulling the flames close to himself and holding them there. His reserves are running low, and it isn't long before he'll need to sleep, but Yamato refuses to rest until his last task is done.

Fortunately, the Boss does not seem to be interested in defending himself in front of a child surrounded by fire.

"So you _are_ the Boss of this arena," states Yamato. "You don't know who I am?"

"What, are you supposed to be someone important?" Boss laughs and waves a hand dismissively. "I've got measures in place to deal with impulsive brats like you."

"You mean the Blockers you stationed outside the arena?" Yamato remembers them, a well-trained pair who'd almost given him trouble with their unique ability to cancel abilities like his. He shakes his head. "I took care of them already."

Yamato has never considered himself a particularly theatrical person, but he's certain hanging around Armada and the Yong-fa brothers have given him a sense for dramatic timing. With a bright grin, he lets the flames around him drop to his hand, where they coalesce into their natural state. The sword flashes blue and silver for a moment, before settling on its typical orange and red once more.

The Boss's eyes widen, and he scrambles up onto his feet and starts to move, attempting to put as much distance between them. "Y-you're the Fireblade! What—what the hell are you doing here? What do you want?"

"I'm here for your head," answers Yamato, striding forward with a steady, careful pace. "I know what you've been doing in this place, and creeps like you don't deserve the space you take up. Besides, the Thunderking is _mine_."

"The Thunderking—" The Boss is starting to flatten himself against the wall behind his desk, reaching for the window that Yamato would have thought decorative if not for the Foreman's room. But even as he blatantly attempts to escape, he starts to plead, voice growing more and more desperate the more Yamato advances. "You can have him! You can have anyone you want from the arena! L-let's strike a deal. I'll give you kids for your gang—wait, please—You didn't kill the Shadowfend! Why would you kill _me_ —"

"Shadowfend was a victim. He was a lot like the kids whose lives you've ruined." Yamato lets his words settle between them.

And then the Fireblade raises his sword and dispenses what he believes to be justice.

***

As the sun rises, a building in the bottommost level of Vega City collapses.


	5. a daunting fortune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: capable

Confusion is the order of the morning, as Enjyu makes his way down to the arena. Packs of kids are out in full force tonight, each one he vaguely recognizes even though Boss always insisted on keeping each child apart from each other. They line the roads, keeping to the shadows, and Enjyu can hear them whispering amongst themselves as they move along with him toward the deepest section of Vega City.

He smells the ruin before he sees it, the familiar thick scent of smoke and fire having turned something inside out. He breaks into a jog, moving swiftly through the winding streets of the lower city, only to stop in his tracks as he rounds the final corner. Enjyu stares, blinks, and rubs his eyes, but reality does not change. Little remains of the underground arena but a pile of rubble, and there is no longer any visible way to descend into its lower floors.

Enjyu backs away, back up into the street he'd just come out of. The other children, all younger than him, move around the edges of his vision as they hide in the alleyways and other streets that surround the fallen arena. Some even peek out at him from the rooftops and from the windows of forgotten half-buildings.

One of them darts out of the shadows and at him, a small girl in a tattered dress with matted brown hair. She holds out a folded paper to him. "He said to give you this, Mr. Thunder."

Enjyu blinks. "Who?"

"The boy with the sword!" exclaims the girl, "He was on fire when he came out of there, but he didn't care. He was amazing..."

"What did he say to you?" he asks, taking the paper from her gingerly.

"He asked me to give that to you," she answered, nodding at it. A pause, and she quietly adds, "He also said...that the Boss is dead and we're free to do whatever we want now. But, um. We don't really have anywhere else to go..."

Enjyu doesn't stop himself from groaning and smacking his own face with his palm. "That idiot," he growls, even as he unfolds the sheet.

> _Thunderking—_
> 
> _I won't count this as a favor, no debt needs paying. Boss is dead but the Foreman got away. You can have everything in the safe if you can find it._
> 
> _You don't have to stay in Vega City. You don't have to fight for anyone but yourself, and you don't have to be alone anymore. The offer stands and the League of Power waits. You know how to get to Cowtoon._
> 
> _I'll be waiting,_
> 
> _—Fireblade_

The paper bursts into flames in Enjyu's hand, rage coursing through him as he crushes its remnant ashes. The _audacity_ of Yamato, to come here and think he can burn away all of Enjyu's problems in a single night! The _insolence_ , the _cheek_ —

Enyju looks down, into the eyes of the girl before him. He grits his teeth. Yamato, naturally, did not think about what would happen next to anyone who was outside the little circle he cared almost exclusively about. What did Yamato think would happen? That he and every last one of the children ensnared in Vega City would just...climb out and go to Cowtoon?

No, surely not, and if Yamato has left already, then he intends for them to fend for themselves.

Enjyu should just go.

He should just take up Yamato's offer and go to Cowtoon and live out the rest of his days in the League of Power with its nice and shiny _morals_ and nice and shiny _family_. He could be part of that. No more of this awful city where everything was foul, where every day he is certain he is going to sink past the point of no return.

But the man who owned a good chunk of Vega City's underground fighters is dead.

And with his death, the demise of his criminal network. And a hole opens up in Vega City's structure. He's left that sort of life behind, but _power_ is something Enjyu knows, and perhaps he's in no state to take charge of others' lives, but maybe...

He gazes up at the rooftops. Heads that were peeking out at him a moment earlier quickly disappear. He grins. Maybe this isn't the outcome Yamato wants, but it's the only outcome that Enjyu thinks makes sense, because to leave such a large crack in Vega City is _simply_ irresponsible.

"Listen to me!" he shouts into the air. He can feel their gazes on him, perhaps a hundred in number, perhaps more. "The Fireblade killed Boss and burned the arena down, but he's left you all behind to survive on your own. And worse of all, he wants you to leave Vega City and join the League of Power."

The hush that drapes across the immediate area around them is a curious weight on him.

"He doesn't know you like I do," says Enjyu, and the words come after being held back for so long. "It's not easy to leave this city. If you're like me, you came here because you believe there's nothing left for you outside. Maybe some of you came here after the Shadow Alliance too. No matter why, you've come to this hellhole and there's no going back."

When he looks back down, he finds the girl staring up at him with eyes wide like saucers. Something shines in them, a flickering swirl of clouds held back only by her age.

"You've all got something in you," he declares. Enjyu raises one hand and lets fire flow from within. It appears in a light swirl just over his fingers. He holds it there and raises his other hand, tugging on the other half of his heart. Lightning crackles forth, earning loud gasps all around him. Effortlessly, he keeps both elements hovering over his hands. "So do I. Now I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of letting other people tell me what to do with everything that makes me _me_."

Visible faces peer down at him now. Hundreds of children, in the alleys, on the rooftops, in the shadows, gazing into his fire and lightning. Hopeful faces, disbelieving faces, fearful faces, downcast ones—each one reflecting emotions he's worn in the past six months. Enjyu knows them, he realizes. He knows each and every one of the multitude because each and every one is like him in some way.

His hands tighten into fists, dispersing the fire and lightning, and he yells up at them all. "We'll make our own team, our own _gang_! We don't need to depend on the Fireblade or the League of Power. We were thrown away by the world, and now we'll make our own world.

"You can leave if you want," he tells them. Enjyu pumps his fists. "But if you stay—then welcome to the Junkyard Coalition."

Powers and gangs. Shaping the world. These are things he swore he would never be involved in again, but today something shifts. He is tired and ready to sink into nothing. But maybe this time—he'll keep his head high.

***

**EPILOGUE—**

Fire dashes against the shield of shadows, scattering away and fading. Yamato throws another pair of fireballs, and once again, the shield comes up just in time.

"You're getting faster again," he tells his opponent.

Biarce smiles and lowers his shield. "That's only because you won't let me slack off."

Yamato laughs and strides close, balls of fire dancing around him in a circle. "You're the one who asked me not to let your skills get rusty."

"We better get back—" Biarce starts, only to be cut off when the wind picks up, kicking up dust and sand around him. They turn around and look up into the Cowtoon sky.

Gray lands a moment later.

"Urgent," he tells Yamato. "Wind changed for a moment, then some kid fell out. She's demanding to talk to you. Says she's from...Vega City..."

Yamato quashes the flames around him immediately.

Six months. He has been hoping for six months. In that time, he's been restless, impatient. Enjyu must have gotten his letter, so why hasn't he come? Why hasn't he joined him here, where it's safe and everything's all right?

Six months of questioning and wondering, and finally, word from Vega City.

Yamato arrives back at the Cat Cafe to find his other friends out in full force. They stand before the cafe, facing their visitor. It must have been an absurd sight, that of a tiny brunette girl staring down three trained warriors.

He recognizes her right away. One of the children he'd talked to in Vega City, and the one he'd entrusted a letter for Enjyu.

"Stand down guys," he calls out, and Liena, Wen, and Li look between him and the girl before slowly backing away. He hears Gray and Biarce land behind him a moment later.

"Fireblade!" shouts the girl as soon as she spots him. She does not give him room to respond, immediately launching into a well-practiced spiel. "The Thunderking has a message for you. He says: If you claim to be his friend, then let the League of Power and the Junkyard Coalition be friends too."

" _Junkyard Coalition?_ " hisses Gray. Surprise makes its rounds through the others, but Yamato—

Yamato can't help but laugh.

He shouldn't have thought that things would be simple and easy when it comes to Enjyu. Everything about Enjyu is the opposite of that, and he's always been out to challenge what Yamato believes in.

He should have expected this. Extend a hand to Enjyu, and he swats it away and pulls himself out of the pit in a different direction instead.

"Okay," Yamato tells the girl. He can hear his friends starting to protest. Gray, in particular, won't be pleased that he's making this decision without consulting his right hand. "The League of Power will be friends with the Junkyard Coalition, on one condition."

The girl is unfazed. "Name it."

"Thunderking will first have a battle with me."

"That's what he said you might say," she says. "As Thunderking's right hand, I accept on his behalf. He'll send the terms of battle soon."

She does not wait for him to answer. A cloud forms around her, and she jumps into the wind, and off she goes.

Yamato sighs as the breeze passes, and the Cowtoon wasteland settles into stillness again. There will be plenty of preparation, plenty of strategizing, but for now, he is simply relieved. Vega City is a distant memory for him by now, with its towering skyline and sour scent that traps the unsuspecting visitor.

Good on Enjyu, he thinks, for taking the city for himself instead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> E...eh?? This isn't the ending I set out to write?? The plan was to have Enjyu return after all, but then this went a different direction and I ended up liking this a lot more once I thought about it.
> 
> I know this is the ending of this fic, but I deliberately tried to obfuscate one aspect of the AU until this chapter: "teams" of super-powered people are really just gangs. Yamato created the League of Power to fight the Shadow Alliance directly and ended up with a bigger group on his hands than expected.
> 
> "Junkyard Coalition" is a reference to "Team Junk" from the manga. So yes Haja and Jinbei end up joining Enjyu's gang in Vega City sometime in the future and there are shenanigans.


End file.
